Mass tourism ruins the places it loves | Letters

Can the increase in tourist numbers be stopped, asks John M Barrett; and Michael Gold onthe real cost of cheap holidays

As an inhabitant of Edinburgh, and frequent visitor to the west coast of Scotland and Lisbon, I read with interest about the destructive impact of mass tourism (Skye’s the limit, 10 August; Mass tourism is at a tipping point, 11 August). I avoid central Edinburgh as it is overrun with tourists. Parts of the west coast of Scotland have become unpleasant and unmanageable as tourism has increased, and Lisbon has become a jam-packed pastiche.